December, December
Arriving with pocketfuls of snow…

12/28/06:
Thank you for yor indulgence as I wallowed in self-pity earlier… I don't promise to forever refrain from future similar attempts, in fact I don't promise to refrain for long from seeking supportive condolences. In the meantime, let us return to more lively topics, such as my sister-in-law Terrie. Terrie is younger than myself, more limber and, as noted before, lively. The dancing pepper to the left is representative of her and clicking on it will lead you to a recent video of Terrie demonstrating her talents.

If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself— Rollo May

12/25/06:
It was a quiet Christmas this year. Jay and I enjoyed each others' company and I did enough cooking that we were able to do a fair amount of feasting— back to diet and exercise tomorrow. Years ago I thought about the time to come when my children would be grown and expected the "empty nest" era would be tinged with some sadness, but also expected the feelings would be modulated by some relief from letting go of the more physically and mentally challenging tasks of parenting. My ideas held a fundamental assumption that the adult children would be around, somewhere. I did not dream that they would disappear, compounding any feelings of loss. It has been almost two and a half years (8/1/04) since I have seen Carrie, and I miss her so. Kira has kept in touch with me and come up for every major holiday, even though she has dropped out of contact now and then for a few months at a time. But now I have not seen Kira since the end of August and last talked to her in early October. The holidays were really different this year. Even though I glanced outside every time I heard a car door shut at neighbors' homes, I did not realize until I began to sob this evening that I had held inside a hope that Kira would come or call. It is not just the loss of contact, but also the fears those silences contain that makes them so painful. When do these fears for our childrens' well-being cease? What was that email joke a few years back? The professor says that in the English language a double positive does not make a negative, and a student in the back of the room says "yeah, right." But back to the first question I posed: when do our fears for our children cease? Fears for our children cease when hopes and dreams for our children cease. Yes, the answer is never.

I have written before about the program my sister runs and dedicates herself to, a social enrichment program for developmentally disabled adults in her community. She depends upon the generousity of others and United Way for the meager funds she miracuously turns into her program. This year the funds are down and the costs associated with the Special Olympics bowling program are up. She says these things happen, some years are easier than others. This year the program is a couple of months shorter... Click on the picture of her and I to go to a blurb on the United Way website about her program. If you'd like to donate something you can send a check to the Adult Handicap Program, c/o Linda Cobb, Eaton Intermediate, 1790 E. Packard Hwy., Charlotte, MI 48813. It is a non-profit and donations are tax deductible, and good karma will follow.

Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you- if you don't play, you can't win.— Robert Heinlein

12/24/06:

Light is my inspiration, my paint and brush. It is as vital as the model herself. Profoundly significant, it caresses the essential superlative curves and lines. Light I acknowledge as the energy upon which all life on this planet depends.— Ruth Bernhard

12/23/06:
The picture to the right and to the left link to a wonderful story and a lovely essay that are not real long and in my humble opinion worth a look. Happy holidays, I hope you enjoy reading them. :)

All sects are different, because they come from men; morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.— Voltaire, 1694-1778

12/21/06:
Well, we had an amazing storm here last week. Not even all the people in King County (where Seattle is) have their power on yet. We were very lucky ourselves, losing power only 11 hours, starting at 2AM Friday morning. A lot of people lost power the evening before, but we only experienced the lights flickering now and then that evening. After one of several flickerings I got up stating "I'm filling the tea kettle" and went into the kitchen. I filled the tea kettle and a large Brita pitcher, then stopped mid-looking-for-another-pitcher. I walked back into the bedroom and said, "Why did you let me do that? We have city water." Jay just looked up and said, "That's right, you should have been filling them with electrons." Yes, Jay is quite practical. Today I purchased a second photon emitting device, otherwise known as a lantern flashlight. We decided you really can't have too many of them…

Too often man handles life as he does the bad weather, he whiles away the time as he waits for it to stop.— Alfred Polgar

12/18/06:
Today I share with you some information I ran across a while back, writing a note on my wall calendar so's I could remember it and let everyone know about it as the event neared. Yet, when I turned my calendar to December at the beginning of the month, I found myself confused about why I had written "orgasm" on December 22nd. Turns out I wasn't just plain goofy, at least not goofy in the way I thought. A group of peaceniks has organized what they call Global Orgasm on Solstice Day (December 22nd) "to effect a positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy, a Synchonized Global Orgasm... reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world." It seemed like it was worth the try, afterall, what do you have to lose?

Life without idealism is empty indeed. We must have hope or starve to death.— Pearl S. Buck

12/17/06:
Today I am baking zucchini bread for gifts and to take to work for a potluck, along with one of my apple pies frozen this fall. As you might remember from my October page, the last zucchini bread I made for a work potluck ended up inadvertently being more of a pudding bread because I got mixed up about what I was doing. This time I doubled the recipe to make four loaves, a risky venture given past misadventures, but they taste and look okay so far….

The picture to the left is of me in 1959, peering to see what was being put out on a picnic table by my mom. I was skinny and anemic then, but already had an interest in at least observing food. The picture links to an interesting story about recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammed Yunus, who started the micro-credit loans you have probably read or heard about. In his acceptance remarks he spoke of how poverty impedes peace. An interesting story, as is the current press Aurthur Brooks is getting on his new book about studies finding conservatives give more to charity than liberals. Checking the web, it appears his study was published a couple of years ago, but the book is just now coming out. I haven't read it, but in the radio interview I heard he brought in a lot of ideas, such as the fact the poor and rich are more generous (in terms of percentage of income given) than the middle class, and the spiritual (in which he includes any and all religions) give more than the non-spiritual. It seems the bottom line, once again, is the divergence of opinion about what role the government vs. individuals should have in our society. Conservatives believe government should not address inequalities, yet believe in individual giving, while liberals believe society should address poverty through government, yet believers of both stripes give. The more you think about it, or at least the more I think about it, the more complex it gets. Seems to be that way with much for me. At any rate, 'tis the season— for giving.

No one has ever become poor by giving.— Anne Frank (1929-1945)

12/16/06:
Have you ever had a pomegranate? I have had them on/in foods and my friend Robie fixed a lovely, yummy baked fish with pomegranate sauce for our wedding party Barbara Bizilia threw February 2005. Recently I watched Martha Stewart and a guest prepare a dish with pomegranates, easily cutting them open and tapping out the lucious red seeds. Naturally, when I ran across some pomegranates at the market this last week I thought to myself "hmm, yes, easy enough, I know how to do this" and bought one to experiment with. In the evening I cut it open, in fourths just like Martha, and tried tapping then scooping out the yummy seeds. Indeed, it was easier to watch than to do… but I did get a pile of fruit/seeds to snack on that were a fun, unusual flavor. I knew a little pomegranate juice had squirted as I scooped, but after feasting discovered more juice splatterings to wipe up than I expected! Luckily the splatterings did wipe up handily so I had the pleasure of a freshly wiped off counter, backsplash, top cupboard bottom and front, kitchen window and window casing, coffee maker, cookie jar, and refrigerator side. I've decided to leave the pomegranate fixing to people more talented in seed retrieval than myself.

I like to play blackjack. I'm not addicted to gambling, I'm addicted to sitting in a semi-circle.— Mitch Hedberg

12/15/06:
Well, it has been a hell of a winter so far. In November we had rain with snow in the mountains resulting in flooding, followed when my folks were here by high winds and rain, followed by a snow storm with an incredible and unusual cold snap, and now we have had a record wind storm that knocked out power at our home (and 20,000 in our county) for 11 hours and has left 1 MILLION people in the counties south of us still without power. Wow man, the weather has become as bad as national politics.

I grew up in Michigan where we often watched weather systems march across the country toward us. Even then weather predictions lacked certainty. I discovered with surprise when I moved out here that the weather is less predictable yet, because there is uncertainty as to what will happen when weather systems in the ocean meet the land. I remember wondering how it was the weather people here could get the weather right so infrequently. Earlier this week local weathermen did predict this latest blow— we didn't know what to think, but we hoped their talk of huge wind storms would not materialize. Ah, so much for controlling life. C'est la vie.

Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.— Dwight D. Eisenhower

12/10/06:
Well, I have no real excuse for it: I have been slow on the draw. My brother Don and his wife Terrie have once again become grandparents, but I failed to announce it in a timely fashion. My apologies.

Terrie's daughter, Don's stepdaughter, Heather gave birth to a lovely and healthy 7lb 10oz baby girl at 7:36pm the 19th of October. Harlie Jo was able to meet her father, Dustin Kamrowski, before he headed back to Iraq. Best wishes Heather, Dustin and Harlie Jo!

Click on the little picture to see a bigger one of Don and Terrie's newest grandchild.

Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.— Marianne Williamson

12/8/06:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARBARA!!
Yesterday was my new work partner Barbara's birthday. I gave her a present the first thing, then we headed out to perform our duties. We were driving along when I glimpsed an oddly shaped vehicle front over to the side, and turned my head to get a better look. What a surpise for both of us! I had seen pictures of it but had never seen it in person— the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile! Oh, my, gawd! I quickly pulled over into the left turn lane and turned the car around. We needed to go back for pictures, of course! Barbara agreed whole-heartedly, since it was the chance of a lifetime and a wonderful omen for her day of birth. As we took photos the song played in our heads. Click the small picture of Barbara for more… what a fun birthday treat! Happy Birthday Barbara.

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.— Anais

12/3/06:
The snow has mostly melted and life is getting back to normal yet, alas, I am running late…. The picture to the left is of our poor fig tree last week. We had started to enclose it in burlap, did not have enough and, well, you see the rest of the story. Hopefully he will be alright and bear us fruit yet again next summer. We were lucky and did not lose power or have any problems other than inconvenience, happily.

Jay and I have been working on putting the old family photos and information that Paul let us copy in a nice format that we will burn on CDs for family members. It is a surprising amount of work— thank you Jay! More later, but while you are here try clicking on the pictures (the fig and the snow scene link to fun things and the Our Gang snowball thrower links to some neat sidewalk art).

We have no permanent brains until we are forty. Then they begin to harden, presently they petrify, then business begins. Since forty I have been regular about going to bed and getting up— and that is one of the main things.— Mark Twain

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